Legal Concepts for European Union (EU)

version 2.1

Final Community Group Report

This version:
https://www.w3.org/community/reports/dpvcg/CG-FINAL-legal-20250316/
Latest published version:
https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu
Latest editor's draft:
https://dev.dpvcg.org/legal/eu
Editor:
Harshvardhan J. Pandit (ADAPT Centre, Dublin City University)
Author:
Harshvardhan J. Pandit (ADAPT Centre, Dublin City University)
Feedback:
GitHub w3c/dpv (pull requests, new issue, open issues)
This Release
https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu
Key Publications
Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV) -- Version 2.0 (2024)

Copyright © 2025 the Contributors to the Legal Concepts for European Union (EU) Specification, published by the Data Privacy Vocabularies and Controls Community Group under the W3C Community Final Specification Agreement (FSA). A human-readable summary is available.

Contributors: (ordered alphabetically) Harshvardhan J. Pandit (ADAPT Centre, Dublin City University). NOTE: The affiliations are informative, do not represent formal endorsements, and may be outdated as this list is generated automatically from existing data.

Abstract

The LEGAL-EU extension extends the Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV) Specification to represent laws, authorities, and other legal concepts in EU jurisdiction.

The canonical URL for LEGAL-EU extension is https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu, the namespace is https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#, the suggested prefix is legal-eu, and this document along with source and releases are available at https://github.com/w3c/dpv.

DPV Specifications: The [DPV] is the core specification within the DPV family, with the following extensions: Personal Data [PD], Locations [LOC], Risk Management [RISK], Technology [TECH] and [AI], [JUSTIFICATIONS], [SECTOR] specific extensions, and [LEGAL] extensions modelling specific jurisdictions and regulations. A [PRIMER] introduces the concepts and modelling of DPV specifications, and [GUIDES] describe application of DPV for specific applications and use-cases. The Search Index page provides a searchable hierarchy of all concepts. The Data Privacy Vocabularies and Controls Community Group (DPVCG) develops and manages these specifications through GitHub. For meetings, see the DPVCG calendar.

To cite and understand the structure of DPV, the article "Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV) - Version 2.0" (2024) describes the current state of DPV and extensions from version 2.0 onwards (open access version here). The earlier article "Creating A Vocabulary for Data Privacy" (2019) describes how the DPV was developed (open access versions here, here, and here).

Contributing: The DPVCG welcomes participation to improve the DPV and associated resources, including expansion or refinement of concepts, requesting information and applications, and addressing open issues. See contributing guide for further information.

Status of This Document

This specification was published by the Data Privacy Vocabularies and Controls Community Group. It is not a W3C Standard nor is it on the W3C Standards Track. Please note that under the W3C Community Final Specification Agreement (FSA) other conditions apply. Learn more about W3C Community and Business Groups.

GitHub Issues are preferred for discussion of this specification.

2. DPV Extensions

Within the [LEGAL-EU] extension namespace, the following laws are defined as separate extensions with their own namespaces:

3. Laws

Laws are represented as instances of dpv:Law, and are associated with their jurisdictions using the [LOC] taxonomy and dpv:hasJurisdiction relation. The webpage for the law, if available, is indicated using foaf:homepage, and the temporal start and end if available, is represented using dct:temporal relation with an instance of time:ProperInterval.

ID Name Jurisdictions Authorities Webpage Start/End
law-AIAct AI Act European Union (EU) link
law-DGA Data Governance Act (DGA) European Union (EU) link 2023-09-24/ongoing
law-DMA Digital Markets Act (DMA) European Union (EU) link 2022-11-01/ongoing
law-DSA Digital Services Act (DSA) European Union (EU) link 2022-11-16/ongoing
law-DataAct Data Act European Union (EU) link
law-GDPR General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) European Union (EU) ; Iceland ; Liechtenstein ; Norway legal-eu:DPA-EDPB, legal-eu:DPA-EDPS link 2018-05-25/ongoing

4. Authorities

Authorities are represented as instances of dpv:Authority, and are associated with specific jurisdictions using dpv:hasJurisdiction. The law which the authorities enforce is indicated by dpv:hasApplicableLaw. The webpage for the authority, if available, is indicated using foaf:homepage.

ID Name Jurisdictions Laws Webpage
DPA-EDPB European Data Protection Board European Union (EU) ; Iceland ; Liechtenstein ; Norway legal-eu:law-GDPR link
DPA-EDPS European Data Protection Supervisor European Union (EU) legal-eu:law-GDPR link

5. Adequacy Decisions

Adequacy decisions representing agreements between jurisdictions such as for free flow of data, are currently only defined in [GDPR]. They are represented as instances of eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision, and are associated with relevant jurisdictions using dpv:hasJurisdiction. The start and end, if available, is represented using dct:temporal with an instance of time:ProperInterval. The webpage, if available, is indicated using foaf:homepage.

ID Name Jurisdictions Webpage Start/End
Adequacy-EU-AD EU Adequacy Decision for Andorra Andorra, European Union (EU) link 2010-10-21/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-AR EU Adequacy Decision for Argentina Argentina, European Union (EU) link 2003-07-05/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-CA EU Adequacy Decision for Canada (commercial organisations) Canada, European Union (EU) link 2002-01-04/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-CH EU Adequacy Decision for Switzerland Switzerland, European Union (EU) link 2000-08-25/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-FO EU Adequacy Decision for Faroe Islands European Union (EU), Faroe Islands link 2010-03-09/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-GB EU Adequacy Decision for United Kingdom European Union (EU), United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland link 2021-06-28/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-GG EU Adequacy Decision for Guernsey European Union (EU), Guernsey link 2003-11-21/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-IL EU Adequacy Decision for Israel European Union (EU), Israel link 2011-02-01/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-IM EU Adequacy Decision for Isle of Man European Union (EU), Isle of Man link 2004-04-30/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-JE EU Adequacy Decision for Jersey European Union (EU), Jersey link 2008-05-26/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-JP EU Adequacy Decision for Japan European Union (EU), Japan link 2019-01-23/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-NZ EU Adequacy Decision for New Zealand European Union (EU), New Zealand link 2012-12-20/ongoing
Adequacy-EU-UY EU Adequacy Decision for Uruguay European Union (EU), Uruguay link 2012-08-22/ongoing

6. Vocabulary Index

6.1 Classes

6.1.1 EU Adequacy Decision for Andorra

Term Adequacy-EU-AD Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for Andorra
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-AD
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction Andorra , European Union (EU)
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.2 EU Adequacy Decision for Argentina

Term Adequacy-EU-AR Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for Argentina
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-AR
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction Argentina , European Union (EU)
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.3 EU Adequacy Decision for Canada (commercial organisations)

Term Adequacy-EU-CA Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for Canada (commercial organisations)
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-CA
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction Canada , European Union (EU)
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.4 EU Adequacy Decision for Switzerland

Term Adequacy-EU-CH Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for Switzerland
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-CH
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction Switzerland , European Union (EU)
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.5 EU Adequacy Decision for Faroe Islands

Term Adequacy-EU-FO Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for Faroe Islands
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-FO
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction European Union (EU) , Faroe Islands
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.6 EU Adequacy Decision for United Kingdom

Term Adequacy-EU-GB Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for United Kingdom
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-GB
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction European Union (EU) , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.7 EU Adequacy Decision for Guernsey

Term Adequacy-EU-GG Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for Guernsey
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-GG
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction European Union (EU) , Guernsey
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.8 EU Adequacy Decision for Israel

Term Adequacy-EU-IL Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for Israel
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-IL
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction European Union (EU) , Israel
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.9 EU Adequacy Decision for Isle of Man

Term Adequacy-EU-IM Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for Isle of Man
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-IM
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction European Union (EU) , Isle of Man
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.10 EU Adequacy Decision for Jersey

Term Adequacy-EU-JE Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for Jersey
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-JE
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction European Union (EU) , Jersey
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.11 EU Adequacy Decision for Japan

Term Adequacy-EU-JP Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for Japan
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-JP
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction European Union (EU) , Japan
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.12 EU Adequacy Decision for New Zealand

Term Adequacy-EU-NZ Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for New Zealand
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-NZ
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction European Union (EU) , New Zealand
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.13 EU Adequacy Decision for Uruguay

Term Adequacy-EU-UY Prefix legal-eu
Label EU Adequacy Decision for Uruguay
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#Adequacy-EU-UY
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:AdequacyDecision
Date Created 2022-03-30
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has jurisdiction European Union (EU) , Uruguay
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.14 European Data Protection Board

Term DPA-EDPB Prefix legal-eu
Label European Data Protection Board
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#DPA-EDPB
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:DataProtectionAuthority
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:DataProtectionAuthority
Broader/Parent types dpv:Law
Object of relation dpv:hasApplicableLaw
Date Created 2023-12-13
has applicable law General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
has jurisdiction European Union (EU) , Iceland , Liechtenstein , Norway
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.15 European Data Protection Supervisor

Term DPA-EDPS Prefix legal-eu
Label European Data Protection Supervisor
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#DPA-EDPS
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, eu-gdpr:DataProtectionAuthority
Broader/Parent types eu-gdpr:DataProtectionAuthority
Broader/Parent types dpv:Law
Object of relation dpv:hasApplicableLaw
Date Created 2023-12-12
has applicable law General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
has jurisdiction European Union (EU)
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.16 AI Act

Term law-AIAct Prefix legal-eu
Label AI Act
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#law-AIAct
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, dpv:Law
Broader/Parent types dpv:Law
Object of relation dpv:hasApplicableLaw
Date Created 2023-12-09
has jurisdiction European Union (EU)
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.17 Data Act

Term law-DataAct Prefix legal-eu
Label Data Act
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#law-DataAct
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, dpv:Law
Broader/Parent types dpv:Law
Object of relation dpv:hasApplicableLaw
Date Created 2023-12-08
has jurisdiction European Union (EU)
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.18 Data Governance Act (DGA)

Term law-DGA Prefix legal-eu
Label Data Governance Act (DGA)
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#law-DGA
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, dpv:Law
Broader/Parent types dpv:Law
Object of relation dpv:hasApplicableLaw
Date Created 2023-12-05
has jurisdiction European Union (EU)
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.19 Digital Markets Act (DMA)

Term law-DMA Prefix legal-eu
Label Digital Markets Act (DMA)
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#law-DMA
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, dpv:Law
Broader/Parent types dpv:Law
Object of relation dpv:hasApplicableLaw
Date Created 2023-12-07
has jurisdiction European Union (EU)
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.20 Digital Services Act (DSA)

Term law-DSA Prefix legal-eu
Label Digital Services Act (DSA)
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#law-DSA
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, dpv:Law
Broader/Parent types dpv:Law
Object of relation dpv:hasApplicableLaw
Date Created 2023-12-06
has jurisdiction European Union (EU)
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.1.21 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Term law-GDPR Prefix legal-eu
Label General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
IRI https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu#law-GDPR
Type rdfs:Class, skos:Concept, dpv:Law
Broader/Parent types dpv:Law
Object of relation dpv:hasApplicableLaw
Date Created 2023-12-04
Contributors Harshvardhan J. Pandit
has authority European Data Protection Board , European Data Protection Supervisor
has jurisdiction European Union (EU) , Iceland , Liechtenstein , Norway
See More: section LEGAL in LEGAL-EU

6.2 Properties

6.3 External

DPV uses the following terms from [RDF] and [RDFS] with their defined meanings:

The following external concepts are re-used within DPV:

A. Future Work

Issue 171: Provide consolidated list of legal basis, rights, and other relevant concepts for each jurisdiction rightstodolegal

E.g. in EU, there are rights, legal basis, etc. in GDPR, DGA, and so on. Provide a consolidated list of these in the EU extension (/legal/legal-eu.ttl) for convenience of use. A bunch of SPARQL queries over extensions should be able to do this.

Funding Acknowledgements

Funding Sponsors

The DPVCG was established as part of the SPECIAL H2020 Project, which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 731601 from 2017 to 2019.

Harshvardhan J. Pandit was funded to work on DPV from 2020 to 2022 by the Irish Research Council's Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant#GOIPD/2020/790.

The ADAPT SFI Centre for Digital Media Technology is funded by Science Foundation Ireland through the SFI Research Centres Programme and is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through Grant#13/RC/2106 (2018 to 2020) and Grant#13/RC/2106_P2 (2021 onwards).

Funding Acknowledgements for Contributors

The contributions of Harshvardhan J. Pandit have been made with the financial support of Science Foundation Ireland under Grant Agreement No. 13/RC/2106_P2 at the ADAPT SFI Research Centre.

B. Issue summary

C. Changelog for v2.1

The changelog provides more information on concepts that have been added/removed in this version.

D. References

D.1 Informative references

[AI]
AI Technology concepts for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/ai
[DPV]
Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV) Specification. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv
[EU-AIAct]
EU AI Act concepts for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu/aiact
[EU-DGA]
EU DGA concepts for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu/dga
[EU-EHDS]
EU Health Data Space (EHDS) concepts for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu/ehds
[EU-GDPR]
EU GDPR concepts for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu/gdpr
[EU-NIS2]
EU NIS2 concepts for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu/nis2
[EU-RIGHTS]
EU Fundamental Rights concepts for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu/rights
[GDPR]
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). URL: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj
[GUIDES]
Guides for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/guides
[JUSTIFICATIONS]
Concepts representing Justifications for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/justifications
Legal Jurisdiction-relevant concepts for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal
Legal concepts for Austria (AT). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/at
Legal concepts for Belgium (BE). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/be
Legal concepts for Bulgaria (BG). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/bg
Legal concepts for Cyprus (CY). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/cy
Legal concepts for Czech Republic (CZ). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/cz
Legal concepts for Germany (DE). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/de
Legal concepts for Denmark (DK). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/dk
Legal concepts for Estonia (EE). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/ee
Legal concepts for Spain (ES). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/es
Legal concepts for European Union (EU). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/eu
Legal concepts for Finland (FI). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/fi
Legal concepts for France (FR). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/fr
Legal concepts for Great Britain and Northern Ireland (GB). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/gb
Legal concepts for Greece (GR). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/gr
Legal concepts for Croatia (HR). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/hr
Legal concepts for Hungary (HU). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/hu
Legal concepts for Ireland (IE). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/ie
Legal concepts for India (IN). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/in
Legal concepts for Iceland (IS). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/is
Legal concepts for Italy (IT). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/it
Legal concepts for Liechtenstein (LI). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/li
Legal concepts for Lithuania (LT). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/lt
Legal concepts for Luxembourg (LU). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/lu
Legal concepts for Latvia (LV). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/lv
Legal concepts for Malta (MT). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/mt
Legal concepts for Netherlands (NL). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/nl
Legal concepts for Norway (NO). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/no
Legal concepts for Poland (PL). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/pl
Legal concepts for Portugal (PT). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/pt
Legal concepts for Romania (RO). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/ro
Legal concepts for Sweden (SE). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/se
Legal concepts for Slovenia (SI). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/si
Legal concepts for Slovakia (SK). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/sk
Legal concepts for United States of America (US). URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/legal/us
[LOC]
Location and Geo-Political Membership concepts for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/loc
[PD]
Personal Data categories for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/pd
[PRIMER]
Primer for Data Privacy Vocabulary. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/primer
[RDF]
RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf11-concepts/
[RDFS]
RDF Schema 1.1. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema/
[RISK]
Risk Assessment and Management concepts for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/risk
[SECTOR]
Sector-specific Extensions for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/sector
[TECH]
Technology concepts for DPV. URL: https://w3id.org/dpv/tech